Mistakes Read online

  First published by The Writer’s Coffee Shop, 2011.

  Copyright © A.M. Hayward and L.J. Holder, 2011.

  The right of A.M. Hayward and L.J. Holder to be identified and the authors of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part maybe reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Writer’s Coffee Shop

  (Australia) PO Box 2013 Hornsby Westfield NSW 1635

  (USA) PO Box 2116 Waxahachie TX 75168

  Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-61213-032-3

  E-book ISBN-13: 978-1-61213-033-0

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the US Congress Library.

  Cover image by: Yasarorucu

  Cover design by: Jenn McGuire

  www.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/haywardholder

  L.J. Holder was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She is a 41 year old wife to a wonderfully supportive husband, mother to a 9 year old baseball enthusiast, and an owner of a sweet beagle named Grimley. She has been a teacher for over 15 years and has brought her love of writing to her classroom on a daily basis.

  Throughout most of her life, L.J. has written stories, poems, and songs in the privacy of her own journals. The idea of putting her thoughts out for the world to see was an absolutely terrifying proposition. That all changed when L.J. meet her literary sister across the globe. (Amanda) encouraged her begin a writing collaboration.

  As a team, these two have created many fascinating yarns for readers to enjoy, and with Amanda’s never ending locker of ideas, they look forward to many more years of sharing ideas.

  Amanda Hayward was born and raised in Newcastle NSW, Australia. Lived for several years in the UK where she met her husband and dragged him and her two daughters back to Sydney Australia, where they now reside.

  Spends her time when not running around after her two girls who are 9 and 5, working on or breaking The Writer’s Coffee Shop website.

  She prefers to write and bounce ideas off her friends hence writing with a co-author who also happens to be one of her very closest friends.

  How did I get here? My breathing was so loud, it nearly echoed.

  Why me? The blindfold on my eyes was soaked with tears.

  I was no one special, nobody of importance.

  I could barely breathe, and I was panicking. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I felt like I was choking on my own air.

  Oh, God! I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up, but the gag in my mouth reminded me that I would choke if I did. God, Maddy, breathe, breathe!

  I managed to calm myself a little, though constant tears still streamed under the blindfold and down my face. I was petrified. I had to keep fighting the darkness.

  Where was I?

  Where was I going?

  Who were these people?

  My arms were bound tightly behind my back, and I could feel the rope cutting into my skin at my wrists. Every time the car hit a bump, my shoulder hit the solid floor of the trunk, but that was the least of my worries. Right now, I welcomed the pain.It meant I was still alive.I tried to curl myself into a tighter ball, but there wasn‚Äôt enough room, and my head was rubbing against the bottom of the trunk. I managed to shift the blindfold a little, but I still couldn‚Äôt see anything except specks of light from where the rust had eaten through the metal.

  How did this happen?

  I wanted to turn back time; I wanted to go home.

  The lunch line was driving me crazy today; it wasn’t moving fast enough, and the noise from the cafeteria was starting to give me a headache. I couldn’t wait until all of this was behind me. There were only three more months until graduation, and it couldn’t come quick enough.

  School had become a mundane nightmare of lectures, literature, and foreign languages, and in the back of my mind, I knew I was graduating soon, so it was hard to focus because of the monotony of it all.

  I just wanted to be out of here and move on. It wasn’t as though this was the worst time of my life or anything. I had a few great friends, and I was going to graduate in the top five percent of my class, but I was just ready for a change. I wanted to…grow up I guess. To be treated like an adult, and not just some kid who was still in high school. My older brother Zane was in college, and I couldn’t wait to join him. The stories about the parties he went to…Mom and Dad would die if they found out some of the things he’d done. It sounded exciting not boring like it was here.

  My parents were always pushing me to keep my grades up, join the best academic clubs, and run for school leadership. They wanted me to be well-rounded enough to not only get into a good college but also earn scholarships that would help pave my way.

  The pressures from home were only part of it. School caused its own problems. There was always the drive to be thinner, have the perfect body, and wear the best clothes. I could never live up to all those standards.

  The only truly bright part of my school life was being on the swim team. I wasn’t the best, but swimming laps helped take my mind off all the stresses of my senior year. In those moments, my whole world was the sound of the water and the air in my lungs. The simplicity of it was exactly what I needed.

  The only major problem with so much swimming was that the chlorine made my long blond hair very wiry and dry. I was even sure I could see green tinges from time to time. As a result, I went through almost a bottle of conditioner a week, and my mom was always giving me a hard time about it. She would tell me repeatedly how overpriced the special conditioner I needed was, and how I should be trying to help the family save money. I felt bad because I knew it was extravagant, but I didn’t want my hair to look like straw.

  Other than that, I didn’t stress about my looks. I didn’t wear much makeup, but I did take pride in my appearance. I was five-foot-four inches tall and had curves in all the right places. My body wasn’t perfect, but exercising in the pool every day helped to keep me toned and in good shape.

  The sound of students’ protesting jarred me from my thoughts, but before I could turn around to see what was going on, two arms wrap around my waist.I turned quickly to see Aimee’s head rested on my shoulder, smiling a little too smugly.

  “Sorry, Maddy, I just couldn’t face going to the end of the line today. It’s barely moving,” she said, showing no remorse for the other poor students actually waiting their turn behind her. I smiled, shaking my head; Aimee never wanted to wait her turn.

  “Uh huh, sure. So today is different because?” She dropped her hands to her sides, and I turned to find her laughing, her face all lit up, her expression devious. This wasn’t good. When she got that look, it never worked out well for me. I was always the one who wound up in trouble.

  “Okay, so I can’t handle it any day,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and smiling at me.

  The two of us were a study in contrasts. She was tall with shoulder-length brown hair, and I was short and blonde. She was extroverted, where I was shy. She was popular, while I happily stood in the shadow she cast.

  Aimee Lancaster was brilliant, fun, and my best friend in the whole wide world. We’d always just understood each other. She would tell me time and agai
n that I was her only true friend, and I wouldn’t hesitate to tell her what I thought about her crazy nature. Whenever I felt inferior to all the rich, snobby socialites, she was always there to make me smile. I truly didn’t think I would have made it through high school without her.

  We’d been friends since grade school but had recently became a lot closer because we shared some classes and both of us had been on the swim team together. She’d quit this year because she claimed it was taking too much time away from her social life. I didn’t have that problem, because I didn’t have much in the way of a social life to begin with. Aimee would change that situation if she had her way, and she was forever trying to get me to go out with her on weekends, but most of the time I was conveniently busy. I’d always been more comfortable hanging out with my small group of friends than going to huge parties.

  Still, despite being complete opposites, we were inseparable. The thought that we might go to different colleges next year saddened me greatly. We still had breaks to spend together and vowed to always stay friends, but I knew it would never be the same.

  As Aimee put it, she wanted to take on the world as an actress ever since she’d been told she had a model’s body when she was a young girl. Her mom wanted her to go to college out in L.A. while living her dream so she would have something to fall back on. Aimee was fighting this of course, saying she didn’t have time for more school. It would be interesting to see who won that fight. I was betting on Aimee. Mrs. Lancaster didn’t stand a chance, and according to her, Mr. Lancaster was nothing more than a paycheck. He’d left when Aimee was a baby, and the divorce settlement and child support had kept them living in the manner to which they’d become accustomed. Aimee also had a large trust fund that she could access once she turned nineteen whether Mrs. Lancaster liked it or not.

  I still hadn’t made up my mind what I wanted to study. The two professions that I was contemplating were teaching and nursing. All I knew was that I wanted to make a difference and help people. I needed to make a decision soon but just couldn’t choose between the two. Lucky for me, I had the grades to get the scholarships needed to get into the schools I wanted. All five of my top picks had sent me acceptance letters; I just had to decide which one I would attend in the fall. Zane was at Mid-Texas State University and hoped that I would join him there, but I was keeping my options open.

  The truth was that despite my complaints to the contrary, I’d always enjoyed school. Learning was my escape from everyday life. While some girls went to parties and shopped at the mall, I liked researching and writing in my spare time. It wasn’t that I didn’t dream about having fun and letting loose, but it had been ingrained in me from preschool that education came first.

  Even though we’d grown up together, like everything else between Aimee and me, our worlds were very different. I was attending school at Grace Preparatory because my mother was a teacher here. One of the perks of teaching the rich and famous was that you were able to get your children into the school at half the price of normal tuition. To most of my peers that meant I was below them, one step above the dreaded private school “scholarship” student. When I first started school, many of my classmates had made comments about me being poor, but in time, I learned that as an honor student, I got a certain amount of respect that even money couldn’t buy.

  The Lancasters, on the other hand, grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths. Aimee had never wanted for anything, and though she sometimes had a hard time understanding my situation, she’d always been my most ardent supporter and defender. Even in grade school, she would tell me not to listen to what others said. “Those girls will be working for you someday,” she’d exclaim.

  That always got us giggling because we both knew that most of these girls would rather die than get an actual job. They would marry rich men, have babies, and spend summers on some beach in the Caribbean just like their mothers who had a better relationship with their plastic surgeon than with their husbands. Appearances meant everything in their world, and they spent a lot of money to stay on top of their social class.

  Coming from a middle-class home had taught me that to make my way in this world I had to work hard. According to my father, who’d been a postal worker for over twenty years, all those boys with Jr after their name would get jobs as lawyers or politicians. They would continue in the footsteps of their father before them, but they would never know what it was like to work a nine-to-five job that didn’t pay enough to cover the expenses for one month.

  The thing was that while my high school was private, it was not one of the most prestigious in the area. As far as elite went, we were far down the totem pole, but that didn’t bother me. Sometimes it was just hard being around so much wealth. I wished my family had the money to throw around like everyone else. I was always thankful I had a loving supportive family, but in all honesty there were times it would get to me.

  I admit that listening to the girls talk about going to specific parties would leave me feeling a tad envious. The debutant balls were especially intriguing. I always wondered what they were like. What happened when you came out? Did you feel any different? What exactly changed?

  “Earth to Maddy…are you there?” Aimee chided from behind me. “You’re holding up the already-long line here. If you don’t move your ass soon, there’s going to be about a hundred hungry seniors ready to bite you on it.”

  I shrugged and grabbed my salad and tea. “Sorry, I was just thinking about our school.”

  “What the hell for? We’re out of here in three months, and I want nothing more than to say good riddance to this place.”

  “I know, but I was actually wondering why we don’t do a débutante ball like some of the other schools,” I said as I strolled to our table.

  “Honey, it isn’t the school that puts on a Debbie. All those girls are society’s finest,” she said in a haughty English accent. “Their families pay big bucks for them to belong to the right club, and the Debbie is their coming-out party.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize. I just assumed Richland Prep hosted it. That’s where most of them are from anyway,” I mumbled, feeling naive about my lack of knowledge regarding the social elite.

  “That’s just because Richland happens to be the most expensive prep school in the world,” she said, laughing at her own exaggeration. “If you’ve got the big bucks, you go to Richland. If you don’t, you go here. If you really don’t, then you go to public school.” She looked at me in mock-horror. “God, can you imagine?”

  Actually, I could, but I didn’t acknowledge her pretentious attitude and continued to eat my salad in silence until she jumped up and squealed, “Oh my God!I almost forgot!I’ve actually been invited to one of the little debbie parties this Saturday. I don’t really want to go, but we totally can if you want. We’ll have a blast. What do you say? Would you like to go with me?” She looked like she was bursting at the seams.

  I had to admit that I really wanted to go, but instead I said, “You know they’re by invitation only. How would I get in?”

  Aimee laughed and said emphatically, “The invitation was addressed to me and a guest, so you’ll be my plus-one.”

  I laughed with her. “Come on. You know they were talking about someone with a penis, and the last time I checked, I didn’t have one.”

  “How rude of them to insinuate that I could only bring someone of the opposite sex,” she said with fake irritation. “You’re my date, and that’s final.”

  “Whatever, you crazy loon. There’s no way I’m going to crash a débutante ball. I may be poor, but I’m not desperate.”

  “Oh come on, Maddy. Please say you’ll go with me. You being there would make it so much more enjoyable. We could make fun of all the hairstyles and dresses.It’ll be a blast.”

  I shook my head. “Even if I had a real invitation, I wouldn’t be able to get my parents to agree to it. You know how the
y feel about all that stuff.”

  “All right, how’s this? I’ll get my mom to call Marley’s sponsor, she’s a close friend of the family, and ask if it’s okay for you to come. It won’t be a problem. Will that make you feel better?”

  “I guess, but what about my parents?” I knew they were going to be my biggest roadblock.

  She put a hand on my shoulder and hung her head. “Do I have to do all the thinking around here?” She smiled. “You tell them I need your assistance to cover the ball for the school newspaper. Bring your camera, and it will look like you’re taking pictures for me while I interview the debs. What do you say?”

  I thought about it for a minute. This might be doable. Dad would be happy that I was working, and Mom would enjoy that I was doing extracurricular activities to help boost scholarship applications.

  “Fine, but if you leave me standing all alone like you did at that frat party a few months ago, I will never speak to you again.”

  “Good grief! Are you ever going to forget about that? It was one time, and I was only gone for a few minutes,” she retorted.

  “Let’s not go through this again, but it was more like two hours, you whore,” I joked. Aimee raised her eyebrows and smirked just as the bell rang to signal lunch was over. We gathered all our books and bags and headed out.

  When we reached my math room, Aimee turned to me and said, “I’ll come to your house after school, and we’ll plan out your wardrobe.” As I walked away, she whispered, “Oh, and Maddy?” I turned around. “It takes one to know one.”

  I giggled and shook my head as I watched her sashay down the hall.

  “Hey Maddy!” I was still smiling as I turned towards the voice.

  “Oh, Hi, Tim,” I said, still smiling. Tim Jones was one of the most popular boys in school. He was a classic jock but clueless when it came to cell structure in biology. I was helping Tim as a tutor, and I didn’t mind one little bit. Besides being gorgeous, he always tried to make me smile.